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$150,000 wardrobe wasn't my doing, protests Palin
Joe Murphy, Political Editor27 Oct 2008
SARAH PALIN has blamed party grandees for a row over her $150,000 clothes bill.
Clearly stung by the furore, the Republican vice-presidential candidate implied that they had persuaded her to wear a series of designer outfits against her better judgment.
Mrs Palin named the Republican National Committee as being responsible for buying the clothes, which she stressed she did not own and had no intention of keeping.
"This whole thing with the wardrobe, I try to just ignore it because it's so ridiculous," she told a Florida rally.
"Those clothes, they are not my property, just like the lighting and the staging and everything else the RNC purchased," she said. "I'm not taking them with me. I'm back to wearing my old clothes from my favourite consignment shop in Anchorage, Alaska."
The row erupted when routine financial returns revealed that last month the party spent the money on a procession of jackets, pencil skirts and high heels that enabled Mrs Palin to appear in up to three immaculate outfits each day. The party also spent nearly $5,000 on her hair and make-up and $5,000 in a men's shop, possibly to spruce up her husband Todd.
Mrs Palin's barbed retort comes after a weekend in which she has been the butt of savage briefing from within the Republican campaign. One adviser told the CNN news channel: "She is a diva, she takes no advice from anyone. She is playing for her own future and sees herself as the next leader of the party."
Another was quoted on the widely-read Politico blog as saying she was "sloppy" and resorted too readily to negative campaigning.
However, Mrs Palin is drawing huge crowds of core voters - often bigger than John McCain attracts - and is being spoken of as a 2012 presidential candidate if she can flesh out what she believes in and gain foreign affairs experience.
Attempting to paint herself as a woman of modest habits and frugal tastes, the former beauty pageant winner donned ordinary jeans for one appearance in North Carolina.
She described her accessories, including a pair of Eskimo ear-rings, given to her by her husband's mother, and revealed that her wedding ring cost just $35. "My wedding ring - it's in Todd's pocket because it hurts sometimes when I shake hands and it gets squished - is a $35 wedding ring from Hawaii that I bought myself, because I always thought with my ring it's not what it's made of, it's what it represents. And 20 years later I'm happy to wear it."
A campaign spokesman said about a third of the clothes were returned because they were the wrong size or for other reasons, and the rest would be donated to charity.
Mr McCain also dismissed the criticism. "She lives a frugal life," he insisted. "She and her family are not wealthy. She and her family were thrust into this."
Reader views (4)
I need in your help
- Jeevee, Thiruvannamalai, 28/10/2008 04:15
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She reminds me of Mayor McDaniels of South Park.
- Austen, London, 27/10/2008 22:33
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Gov Palin will have more to worry about than further political aspirations when she returns to Alaska. She could be indicted for her role in Troopergate and end up in jail.
- Marlene, Alexandria, VA, 27/10/2008 18:07
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I can't wait for the musical. It should be called My Fair Lady or something like that. Alternatively John McCain might see it as more like Frankenstein.
- Ed Heat, farnham england, 27/10/2008 16:48
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